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My Reading Pleasures: My Self, My Child, My Family, My Students

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Page 1: My Reading Pleasures: My Self, My Child, My Family, My Students

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—Margret Echols—PREKINDERGARTEN TEACHER

Most of Margret’s teaching experience for the last nine

years has been with prekindergarten students. At

 present, she is also working with kindergartners in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers of McDuffie

County, Georgia.

Margret recalls that class time in the seminar never 

seemed to be long enough:

Often before class would begin, we would write on the

board quotes from our readings that we wanted to share

with the class. This proved to be wonderful “sampling”

 time. I can remember scrambling to write down all thewords and phrases that spoke to me and realizing that I 

needed to find a central place to keep these words and

 phrases alongside ones I’d discovered in my own reading

 journeys, so that I could visit them again and again. It

was like a box of assorted chocolates being placed in the

hands of a “chocoholic,” enticing me to sample so many

other books that were being devoured by other readers.

Margret’s favorite reading from the Readers as Teachers and Teachers as Readers seminar was ELLEN 

F OSTER by Kaye Gibbons (1987) because it touched all her 

emotions. Margret was captivated by the main character,

Ellen, who stole her heart.

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C H A P T E R 1 2

My Reading Pleasures:My Self, My Child, My Family,

My StudentsMargret Echols

What is that thing?You hold tight in your handThat takes youTo some other landWhat is that thing?Reflecting in your eyes,Spilling from your lipsWeaving through your mind.

Swiftly your eyes cross each line,Your fingers lift page after pageA rhythm in timePages, pictures, wordsThey speak loudlyWith hardly a soundEyes focusedFingers twitching

Heart poundingLaughs, sighs, and tearsWhen it’s not openIt’s close to your heart.

Please share itI simply must knowAbout that thing you hold in your hand.

Have you ever watched someone who is engaged in reading a book? It is so amazing to see a reader so totally engrossed inwhat he or she is reading. I tried to capture this image in the

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poem above. Sometimes you see it in the reader’s eyes as he peersabove the top of the book, in the tension in his forehead, or in thefluid movements of his lips as they pore over every word. You cantell that the reader is held captive to the words on the pages,completely unaware of the surrounding world.

It is these very reading pleasures that I long for when I seeothers reading and when I am reading a book of my own. These arealso the very pleasures I want my husband, my children, and mystudents to know and thirst for.

I love to read. I love children’s books. I love books that makeme cry and make me laugh. I love books that make me question.As a teacher in an elementary school, I see struggling readers allthe time. For them, reading is a chore. I see children that can’t readbut want to. I see children that can read but don’t. This tragedyinspires me as a prekindergarten teacher to lead every one of myvery young students to experience the joy a book can bring. I amconstantly trying to figure out how I can spark their interest inbooks and, more important, in reading, especially as they becomeready for more formal reading instruction.

My own reading unexpectedly inspires me. The followingexcerpt from Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons (1987) is a goodexample:

I could lay here all night. I am not able to fall asleep withoutreading. You have that time when your brain has nothingconstructive to do so it rambles. I fool my brain out of that bymaking it read until it shuts off. I just think it is best to dosomething right up until you fall asleep. (p. 10)

I realize that looking at myself as a reader leads me to realizeways of being a model for my students. I want to find out what mychildren think about this thing called reading and if they see me asa reader. Making myself more visible as a reader could be a way forme to better communicate my love of reading with them. I

remember my mother and my grandmotherhaving books in our home, visiting the library,

and reading to me. I also had a special friendwho could read faster than I did, so I got her toread to me. I was envious of her ability to read

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Echols

My own readingunexpectedlyinspires me.

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better and faster than I could; however, as long as she would read tome, I willingly overlooked that.

When I was pregnant, I remember wondering if my baby

could hear all the stories I was reading and all the songs I wassinging to my students at school. A few weeks after recovering froma Caesarean section and adjusting to motherhood, I once againbegan reading to my child. Now, Mary Chandler is 4 and in theprekindergarten classroom across the hall from mine. We are stillreading together. As the teacher of 4-year-olds and the mother of a 4-year-old, I am doubly faced with literacy education every day.

Mary Chandler often tells me about books that her teacherhas read during the school day: “We read Dig a Dinosaur 

[Gentner, 1993] today. Rex eats dead dinosaurs. Yuck! Did you readthat book in your class today? Well you need to read it tomorrow.OK, Mom?”

My daughter loves to read, and for that I am very thankful. Ionly hope it will last. As I said before, I remember loving books as a child. I also remember being a struggling reader until getting

reading glasses. After that, I do not have many memories aboutreading. There is a gap—missing pieces. I cannot put my finger onany one reason I stopped reading. I did have a few teachers whoread aloud to us in elementary school. Then came boredom whenreading literary classics in high school. I do not remember finishinga single book in high school. Once I was in college, I found pleasureagain in reading for my literature classes, but this still was not myown reading. It was an assignment. It would seem logical to think 

once a reader always a reader, but that is not how it happened forme. The most important missing piece for me is reading forpleasure, simply because I wanted to read. For years, I neglectedsuch an important part of me. I felt it was a luxurythat I couldn’t afford. There was simply no time toindulge in such pleasures for myself. Recently, Ihave reclaimed that missing piece, reading a book because I want to read it, not because I have to. I

find myself taking books with me everywhere, which greatly annoysmy husband; he says it is rude. I read while riding in a car andduring commercial breaks while watching television.

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My Reading Pleasures: My Self, My Child, My Family, My Students

I find myself takingbooks with meeverywhere.

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As an adult, there are two experiences that I treasure mostwhen it comes to reading. The first is reading to my daughter. Ishare with her words and rhythms in books such as Oh My Baby,

 Little One by Kathi Appelt (2000):

Oh my baby, little one,The hardest thing I doIs hold you tight, then let you go,And walk away from you.

It slips inside your lunch boxAnd underneath your cap.

When your teacher reads a storybook,It settles on your lap.

But oh my baby, little one,The sweetest thing I doIs sweep you up and hold you tightAnd come back home to you.

The second experience first happened while my husband and

I were traveling to Savannah, Georgia, for a long weekend. I hadwanted to read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by JohnBerendt (1994). I had seen part of the movie on television andwanted to revisit the scene of the crime, so I was sure to pick up thebook a few days before our trip. I knew that I wanted to do the book tour while we were in Savannah, but I wasn’t sure my husbandwould have the same interest. Each night, while reading the book before I went to sleep, I would inevitably feel compelled to tell my

husband what was happening in the book. I knew I had hooked himwhen he asked me to read aloud to him in the car on our way there.I loved it. My husband reads to our daughter. He reads thenewspaper and magazines and surfs the Web for information, butrarely does he pick up a book. I keep hoping to find another book that we can share together.

In examining myself as a reader, I find that these are myprecious jewels: (a) being alone with the characters and feeling

among friends; (b) finding the phrases, verse, and rhythms thatspeak to my soul; and (c) swapping titles, pointing out details, anddiscussing perspectives with others. Recognizing these jewels

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My Reading Pleasures: My Self, My Child, My Family, My Students

LITERATURE CITED

Appelt, K. (2000). Oh my baby, little one. New York: Harcourt.Berendt, J. (1994). Midnight in the garden of good and evil. New York:

Random House.Gentner, N.L. (1993). Dig a dinosaur . Bothell, WA: The Wright Group.Gibbons, K. (1987). Ellen Foster . Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.

helps me know how to share reading with my daughter, myhusband, and my students in ways that they, too, might find theirown precious jewels as readers.